GOP’s big con on taxes
Raise my taxes. You read that correctly. Raise my taxes. Conservatives have been on a campaign for more than three decades to demonize government and the taxes that fund it.
In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan declared that, “Whenever we lower the tax rate, our nation is better off.” Ever since, Republicans’ strategy has been to cut corporate and personal income taxes (mostly for the ultra-wealthy) and then cut critical government services to “pay” for the cuts: education, assistance for the poor and disadvantaged, lowincome housing programs, and infrastructure (highways, bridges) upgrades and maintenance. The public pressure to cut taxes became so popular that many Democrats abandoned their core values and hopped aboard the tax cuts bandwagon.
The “big con” was that the benefits of cutting corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthy would magically “trickle down” to the rest of Americans, making our nation stronger and more equitable for all. Only that never happened. The tax cuts also were supposed to so greatly stimulate the economy that the lost tax revenue would be more than offset by increased economic activity — thus reducing the federal budget deficit. That didn’t happen, either. Federal deficits soared. And income inequality, between the ultrarich and the rest of us, soared as well, triggering the decline of the middle class and moving many people into poverty.
The big con of trickle-down economics has driven the gradual decay of the social fabric of our nation and New Mexico. Key indicators of a society’s well-being are now at near crisis levels: homelessness, poverty, childhood well-being, educational achievement compared to other developed countries, prison incarceration rates, mass shootings, stagnant wages, increasing retirement age and substance abuse addictions (e.g. the opioid epidemic). This decline is in marked contrast to the post-World War II era (roughly 1946-80) — a period when all Americans shared more equitably in our nation’s prosperity and government assistance, and economic stimulus programs such as LBJ’s “Great Society” helped most Americans have at least a fighting chance at getting ahead.
In effect, we traded a culture of fairness and compassion for a culture of greed and selfishness. The poor are not the only ones who suffer in such an environment. We all suffer and suffer dearly. A society is only as healthy and happy as the health of its poorest, most vulnerable citizens — like a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Wealthy citizens, and even those who are still fortunate enough to be comfortably “middle class,” are not immune from the suffering experienced by the less fortunate. Whether we realize it or not, all of us are brought down in a society that is permeated with massive inequality and increasing despair.
New Mexico also embraced trickledown economics. In the past two decades under Republican and Democratic governors, the state cut corporate
and personal income taxes — reducing government revenues by $750 million per year. The cuts to education, health care and other vital social services followed.
The promised economic growth the tax cuts were supposed to generate was just a fantasy. And now we find ourselves 49th in the nation, or nearly so, in most key indicators of our well-being.
New Mexico’s trickle-down tax cuts were and continue to be a disaster for our state. The time has come to rescind most, if not all, of those $750 million in tax cuts, but in a way that does not harm lower-income families. Let’s use that revenue to assist the poor and the disadvantaged, enhance K-12 education, lower the cost of higher education, including vocational training, increase crime prevention programs and create jobs. Increase taxes? Start with me.
Craig O’Hare has lived in New Mexico for 23 years and is deeply concerned about where our country and state are headed. He has been an environmental and community activist since graduating from high school.